First Ride: Disc-brake ’cross bikes from Ridley, Raleigh, Look and Litespeed

The Ridley X-Fire carbon cyclocross bike with disc brakes retails for $3395 as you see it without pedals. What’s not to like about a Ridley cyclocross bike? The fork is stiff and steers great, and the ride is smooth. Photo: Lennard Zinn | www.VeloNews.com

The Hayes CX-Five is dialed in for road levers and feel great. Plenty of power for cyclocross riding with the Ridley’s 160mm front and 140mm rear rotors. The rear brake mounts to IS (International Standard) mounts on the seatstay with an adaptor. Photo: Lennard Zinn | www.VeloNews.com

The post mounts on the Oryx fork are for a 160mm rotor without an adaptor. Photo: Lennard Zinn | www.VeloNews.com

The Oryx fork from 4ZA, Ridley’s component brand, is little changed from the cantilever version. It still has the tapered steerer and deep crown for stiffness in that area and has been beefed up on the lower left leg for the disc brake. The disc-specific wheels are custom made by Velocity for Ridley using A23 rims with the braking surface anodized, since it won’t be needed. Photo: Lennard Zinn | www.VeloNews.com

“Cyclocross is Belgium. We are Belgium.” Photo: Lennard Zinn | www.VeloNews.com

The Ridley’s FSA SL-K crankset is spec'ed standard with 46-36 compact chainrings. The front derailleur is Shimano 105, while the rear derailleur and shifters are Ultegra. Photo: Lennard Zinn | www.VeloNews.com

Look’s X-85 disc-ready cyclocross frame and fork sell for $3,000. It’s up to you to build it into a complete bike, but set up with these nice components, I liked the light and nimble ride. It has a flattened top tube for shouldering and wide-clearance Mud-Evac stays. Photo: Lennard Zinn | www.VeloNews.com

Look’s X-85 fork has IS mounts, so an adaptor is needed with either the Hayes CX-Five or the Avid BB7 Road you see here. The front rotor is 160mm. Photo: Lennard Zinn | www.VeloNews.com

There’s plenty of beef to the IS mounts on the X-85’s left seatstay. That rear rotor is 160mm. Photo: Lennard Zinn | www.VeloNews.com

This was my first time riding Look’s S-Track pedals, and I found them to be very nice. For a Crank Brothers or Time rider, there is no learning curve whatsoever. This is the Race model with carbon-filled body and Cro-Mo axle. MSRP is $210, while the Carbon Ti model with titanium spindle is $369, and the starter model with plastic body is $109. An optional cage bolts on to create a bigger platform. Photo: Lennard Zinn | www.VeloNews.com

The Litespeed CX-Ti is disc-brake only, and it comes as frame-only without fork for a rather amazing $2500 for a sweet titanium cyclocross frame. It offers a buttery titanium ride with crisp steering, partially attributable to the 3T Luteus fork that does not come stock. Photo: Lennard Zinn | www.VeloNews.com

The Litespeed CX-Ti’s 44mm ID head tube accepts a tapered 1.5” x 1.125” steering tube with an inset/external headset. Photo: Lennard Zinn | www.VeloNews.com

The CX-Ti bottom bracket shell is PF30. Photo: Lennard Zinn | www.VeloNews.com

There is plenty of beef to support the CX-Ti’s seatstay brake post mounts, and the bowed chainstays offer good heel clearance. Photo: Lennard Zinn | www.VeloNews.com

Raleigh’s RXC Pro cyclocross bike sells for $6000 complete with electronic shifting and top-shelf components. It handles very nicely and is very lightweight. Photo: Lennard Zinn | www.VeloNews.com

Ultegra Di2 shifting on the Raleigh RXC Pro offers easy shifting while bounding around on rough terrain – what’s not to like? Photo: Lennard Zinn | www.VeloNews.com

The oversized RXC Pro head tube takes a 1.5 x 1.125-inch tapered steerer and comes standard with an ENVE disc fork as well as ENVE stem and bar and Cole C38 carbon wheels with Vittoria XG-Pro clincher tires. Note the little screw-on panel with grommet for Di2 or EPS wires. Photo: Lennard Zinn | www.VeloNews.com

The RXC Pro’s chainstay post mounts for the disc brake are elegant, but when seated, my 46.5cm shoes banged the heels on the chainstays and the Hayes CX-Five’s cable barrel adjuster. Out of the saddle I had no heel-clearance problems. Rear rotor is 160mm. Photo: Lennard Zinn | www.VeloNews.com

The front rotor is also 160mm, and the braking with the Hayes CX-Five is very nice, but this bike will come with Avid BB7 Road discs instead; that’s the one specification change from the bike shown here. Photo: Lennard Zinn | www.VeloNews.com

Bar-top levers are standard on all Raleigh cyclocross bikes. Photo: Lennard Zinn | www.VeloNews.com

The little screw-on panels on the RXC Pro down tube can be for internal electric wires, internal hydraulic hoses (as on this bike), cable stops, or covers for singlespeed use. Photo: Lennard Zinn | www.VeloNews.com

If you don’t need them, cover them: RXC Pro hole covers on a bike set up for singlespeed use. Raleigh’s Direct Connect tube-to-tube construction method uses molded carbon tubes, specific to each size, mitered to fit and wrapped with carbon at the joints. Photo: Lennard Zinn | www.VeloNews.com

The RXC Pro PF30 bottom bracket shell, when used with FSA’s press-fit eccentric bottom bracket, allows chain tensioning to make one sweet singlespeed ’cross bike. Photo: Lennard Zinn | www.VeloNews.com

OFS with a TRP hydraulic disc brake and 140mm rotor = simplicity and performance. Photo: Lennard Zinn | www.VeloNews.com

TRP Parabox dual hydraulic master cylinder on a Raleigh RXC Pro set up as a singlespeed. Photo: Lennard Zinn | www.VeloNews.com

For those sticking with cantilevers, the new TRP RevoX is available in aluminum (with stainless bolts) or carbon (with titanium bolts). It offers the pad height adjustability and independent spring tension micro-adjustability missing from the EuroX brakes and sells for $160 for alloy and $300 for carbon. Photo: Lennard Zinn | www.VeloNews.com